Frozen
by Xairathan
Summary: After the Red and Blue King upset the balance of nature, they must find a way to set it back before the oceans freeze over. Their frantic quest drags in Ginoza, who accepts work in the new ice mines to avoid his past, and five high school boys with no knowledge of why they've been kidnapped. They must now race to uncover the King's powers before their world is consumed by ice.
1. Chapter 1

The main inspiration for this fic was Terraria. My friend and I saw patch 1.2 and checked it out, and we discovered that Ice Block cathedrals are a grand and wonderful thing. Unfortunately, the effort involved in making one is daunting to those who don't want to bother with the digging. My friend mentioned that we should enslave zombies and make them dig for us, and that's how this fanfiction got started. The decision to populate it with anime characters was made by the rest of my Terraria group, who thought it was a good idea, so here this is. Sorry again if this isn't the best _O/TL

Cross-posted to AO3

I wish I owned Free!, Terraria, K!, and Psycho-Pass, but sadly I do not.

* * *

Reisi Munakata darts forward, the length of his blade gleaming in the afternoon sunlight, the tip inches from his counterpart's chest as the Blue King pumps all his power into this one stroke that _cannot _fail. Mikoto Suoh takes no notice of this, his golden eyes fixated on the heavens that he will soon be exploring.

Had the Red King been looking his counterpart in the eye, he would've noticed something out of place, something not normally found in the heart of the head of Scepter 4- hesitation. Munakata falters in his step as he presses forward, the tip of his saber now just inches from his friend's chest-

And the heavens explode in violet light as Reisi pulls up short of his target and thrusts his sword arm to the sky, screaming a frantic battle cry; if this fails, not only will he and Suoh be dead, but everyone else for miles around. Suoh turns away, blinded by the sudden aurora taking place overhead, as opposite him the Blue King collapses, grabbing his sword arm. A split second later, both Kings are thrown violently into the treeline by a blast that shakes even the clouds, followed by an even more violent series of tremors.

Suoh is the first one on his feet, using a strong wooden trunk to keep himself steady as the last of the tremors fade away. He sees a mop of blue hair across the clearing and begins to limp his way toward it. "Munakata!" he seethes, more to himself than to the other. Despite the fatigue weighing heavily on his limbs, he makes it across the clearing- which he notices has been cleared of snow by the force of the blast- and nudges the blue-haired man with his foot.

Munakata rolls over, his head still ringing painfully, wondering why Suoh is so inconsiderately kicking the man who saved his life. "Still ungrateful, eh?" he rasps through parched lips.

"You couldn't even let me die?" the Red King rages. "Here I am, satisfied with everything, and you can't even let me _die?_"

"You're selfish." Munakata regains his feet, pressing his lips together as soon as his clipped admonition is done. Suoh notices blood leaking through the blue cloth of Munakata's jacket, rivulets of red that trace scarlet lines down the other's arm. The sight quells his anger, if only for a moment.

"So are you," Suoh mutters lazily. "For keeping me alive." Those four words re-ignite his rage, and he grabs the injured man by the collar and pins him up against a nearby tree. "What were you playing at, Munakata? Tell me!" He raises a hand next to Munakata's face and calls for his power, but his trademark red flames do not flicker into existence. The Red King glances at his hand in disbelief, denial beginning to spread from his eyes down to every part of his being.

Munakata falls to the snow in an uncoordinated heap, but Suoh doesn't take the time to savor the sight. He falls, howling his grief to the skies, calling over and over in his mind for power that refuses to answer his summons. The Blue King deduces this in a matter of seconds, and out of the corner of his eye Suoh sees him gesturing, as if trying to call forth his own essence.

Nothing. Munakata's eyes widen behind his spectacles and he scrambles in the snow for his sword, lying five meters away amidst the trees. He leaves a bloody red trail in the ice where he crawls. The Blue King grasps his weapon with his good arm and stares at it, willing it to blaze with azure. The metal remains a gleaming silver.

Violet eyes meet amber in a moment of shock that brings both men to their knees, where their power, _their_ power, no longer answers to them.

Suoh moves first, like he always does, and begins a silent hobble towards the bridge. Munakata stares at him for a second before sheathing his sword and turning away to face the ocean. He cleans his glasses, adorned with flecks of melted snow, and goes to adjust them on his face when he freezes. "Suoh. Suoh! You need to see-"

"What is it?" The Red King turns, eyes glimmering with annoyance, and he looks at Munakata's outstretched hand and pointing finger. "What's so special about the-" Suoh takes one glance in the direction his counterpart is pointing and his mouth goes slack. "The ocean," he finishes in a hushed tone.

"Yes," Munakata murmurs in reply. He refuses to believe what he's seeing; maybe Awashima can do a few tests once they get back to Scepter 4 headquarters. Suoh is thinking along the same lines, of perhaps getting Kusanagi to close up the bar and help his King decipher these twisted lines. The two Kings nod to each other, a mutual farewell, and pad off into the forest to seek their own ways back to their Clans.

They leave at their backs a crater, a massive grave for the power of four Kings. They leave in their wake a wide spread of trees thrown down like toothpicks by the powers unleashed. And they leave behind an ocean, glittering like crystal in the light of the sun, frozen over at the surface and, perhaps, even further beneath, stretching like grasping fingers in every direction.


	2. Chapter 2

"And you're absolutely sure about this?" Reisi straightens his glasses with the flat of his palm- a feat that leaves Suoh wondering how the other doesn't have fingerprint marks all over his lenses- and eyes the papers littering his desk. He's only had the time to read half of them, but between the data from Seri Awashima, his head of research, and Suoh Mikoto's own bartender, Kusanagi, the results are quite clear.

"So let me get this straight," Suoh drawls, gesturing with his cigarette-bearing hand. The blonde woman, aide to the temporarily-defunct Blue King, winces as she thinks about ash spreading on the fine carpets of Scepter 4's headquarters. The amber-eyed man allows himself a smirk at the opposite faction's comfort before continuing. "When Munakata released his power, the force with which he did it canceled out my Sword of Damocles."

"That is correct," Awashima replies stiffly, looking to her King for support.

"And in canceling out your power, I caused an imbalance that has thrown the essence of nature into disarray," muses Munakata. "Which manifested itself in the freezing of all waters in a 100-kilometer radius around Japan." The man leans forward, placing his elbows on his desk and making a steeple of his fingers. "Well, Suoh, are you going to rage at me?"

The former Red King snorts disdainfully before turning again to Awashima. "Kusanagi's research- backed by yours, I'd think- indicates that the imbalance is spreading."

"Right once again," the blonde replies, her demeanor betraying nothing but professionalism. "We have reason to believe that the ice is slowly spreading every day. Scepter 4's satellite images hint at a possible increase in the ice mass under the water, probably due to the proximity of a power source."

"So what you're saying is our powers are trapped down there, and as long as they stay there, this freezing is going to continue?"

Awashima nods to her King and fiddles with a large folder cradled in her arms. "Kusanagi- _Izumo_- did the calculations. At the rate the ice has spread in the week since the incident, we can expect the underwater ice mass to be twice its original size in several more days. The surface ice will grow at a much slower rate, and is estimated to double in size after approximately a month past the incident." The blonde looks up at both Kings and inhales sharply. "Izumo and I have also taken the liberty of making a plan to stop this."

Munakata leans back in his chair and places a hand to his chin. "I'm listening." The second-in-command of Scepter 4 glances to Suoh, who gestures for her to continue.

"During our testing period, we discovered something rather unusual." She produces several sheafs of paper, which she dutifully hands to her King. He glances down at it once and sets it aside, content to let her explain those twenty pages of scientific blather away.

"Kusanagi and I each chipped off a sample of the surface ice and took it back to our respective headquarters for further study. We were expecting it to have a lifespan of several hours once disconnected from the main power source, that is, the ice body itself. However, the ice not only refused to melt, but took on a crystalline form."

Awashima slaps down a few more papers in front of Munakata, and produces identical documents for his counterpart. "What we have here is a business front known as Snowblock United, whose main purpose is 'the excavation and export of unmeltable ice blocks from the ocean'. Not only will this be a suitable front for us to dig down to the power source, but it will also provide aid for the rest of the country, since our fishing industry is all but crippled."

"What's stopping others from drilling into this ice and finding the power for themselves?" Suoh counters.

"We've narrowed down the power source to a radius of fifty kilometers." Awashima consults the large stack of papers- Munakata takes a split second to admire her diligence- and the blonde produces yet another map with a flourish. "What we have here are thermal images of the ice. As you can see, there's one spot that exudes slightly less heat than the others. Unfortunately the effect is rather spread out, so we can assume that either the power source has been scattered all across said radius, or it is so far down that its effects are spread drastically across the surface."

Suoh sits back in the wooden chair provided for him. "What a pain," he mutters.

"This wouldn't be happening if you hadn't decided to go after the Colorless King," Munakata states tersely. "Awashima, we thank you for your report. Dismissed."

Awashima salutes and pivots on her heel before opening the door of Munakata's office and exiting quietly. Both Kings immediately stand once she's gone, and Suoh's eyes find Munakata's instantly. "There's no other option is there," he hisses, displeased.

"It appears that Scepter 4 and Homra are going to need to work together for this," Munakata replies as stiffly as ever. "With the loss of our clansmen's powers, we'll have to rely on more... mundane means as well. How many employees will it take to dig up an ice mine?"

"If you and your stooges take care of the paperwork, Homra can handle the rest." Mikoto scratches idly at his nose. "And if you don't mind at all, we'll be taking Saruhiko Fushimi along with us as well. Don't want him messing up your precious bureaucracy, do you?"

Munakata snorts, the first sign of humor he's shown since the incident. His arm, his right arm, twitches as if laughter is painful. Indeed, the multiple lacerations in that arm are slow to heal; it's a small relief that Suoh's just volunteered to do most of the grunt work. "Yes, I shall get Scepter 4 started on the hiring process, budgeting, and all of that lovely _paperwork _you so love to avoid."

"Send some steel our way," Suoh says with a sigh. "We'll have to build tunnels, bases, supports, probably even sleeping quarters-"

"Appropriate sleeping bags, mining materials, oxygen filters in a worst case scenario-"

"Parkas, jackets, blankets-"

Suoh and Munakata glance at each other, and each gives the other their best version of an exasperated smile. "Give our lieutenants the smallest chance to make trouble for us-" Munakata begins.

Suoh waves a hand at him and starts for the door. "I'll get everything going in a week, tops. I expect the same from you, Blue King."

Munakata watches his counterpart saunter out the door and shut the mahogany slab behind him. He stares into the silence, his injured arm throbbing like an annoying second heart at his side, before turning back to his desk and chair, the former still littered with papers. The Blue King sighs and leans over to grab at the tallest stack with his good hand.

_From King of Scepter 4 to CEO of a mining company, _he muses, sighing inwardly at the amount of paperwork he's going to need to limp through. Maybe after closing time he'll drop by Homra and ask Kusanagi for a drink, since the two sides are no longer at war, just to piss Mikoto off.

It'd be a nice way to end an otherwise boring day.


	3. Chapter 3

_Nobuchika Ginoza ducks as a piece of asphalt soars over his head and impacts the walls of the Nona Tower. He narrows his eyes and stares at the massive mob that's gathered in front of the doors of the Ministry building. Another wave of asphalt- where are they _getting _all of it from?, he wonders- shatters the glass windows behind him._

_"Ginoza-san!" The cry comes from a petite woman, her cropped hair swinging wildly as she runs out from Nona Tower with a bullhorn in hand. "Ginoza-san, what's going on?"_

_"They citizens are rioting," the Enforcer replies through gritted teeth. He draws his Dominator weapon from his belt and points it at the assembled mass, knowing full well that it won't be able to do much against a crowd of this many. He finds himself wishing his ex-partner, Kougami Shinya, was here to back him up. _

_"Is this about the frozen waters?" Akane shouts over the cries of the others. _

_"What isn't!?" Ginoza twists to the side to avoid another clump of masonry as Akane Tsunemori steps to the fore of the Enforcers attempting to secure the building. The ex-Inspector notices his boss hovering slightly behind his right shoulder, as if subconsciously relying on him to protect her from the violence, like he's tried so often to._

_"Citizens, please disperse and return to your residences!" Akane shouts with the help of the bullhorn. "The Ministry of Welfare is currently working with the government of Japan to provide clean fresh water to each person! I repeat, please disperse and return to your residences, the Ministry of-"_

_"Akane!" Ginoza sees the threat too late and whips up his Dominator like Kougami had once leveled a pistol. The brown-eyed female glances once at her subordinate before turning-_

_And taking the full brunt of a large clump of concrete in the face. The Inspector falls, the bullhorn clattering from her hand and smashing cacophonously on the steps of Nona Tower. Ginoza stares, his breath caught between his heart and his windpipe, and for a brief second the entire world stands still._

_A roar echoes up from the riled crowd. Ginoza turns to his left and sees the mass of people has begun to press closer, ignoring the efforts of Enforcers to keep them back. The dam breaks; an Enforcer collapses, his skull caved in by a large rock, and the populace begins to rush forward into the tower._

_Ginoza struggles to reach Akane, stripping off the black vest that marks him so obviously as an Enforcer, but the push of the crowd sweeps him temporarily off his feet and by the time he's once again in control of his body, he's already past the entrance to the tower. He feels his gut wrenching in time with his frantic heartbeat as he pushes time and time again, always to no avail, against this current of madness._

_The river of humans races up and down the stairs, the elevators, destroying all semblance of law and order in the city. Ginoza is faintly aware that he should get out of the tower as soon as possible, that Akane, being the rule-following boss she always was, had probably called the Japanese military in for assistance. He idly wonders if she will meet them at the doors, all prim and proper, before his heart freezes again._

_She's already at the doors, blood leaking from a large cut on the side of her head, eyes unfocused, suit marred where hundreds and hundreds of dusty footprints made their mark on her purity-_

_-the crowd is yelling something. In their rampaging they seem to have found a hidden panel in one of the rooms. A branch of the makeshift army peels off, and Ginoza follows them as best he can, still in a daze._

_They sweep him down winding staircases, banging on the metal walls all the way down, and finally they enter a large room, illuminated, and-_

_Everything falls silent. For the second time that night, all movement ceases as the crowd of a hundred-some people comes to a full stop, staring. Before them lies a sea of glass, a sea of brains, all pulsing with life and electricity, and Ginoza realizes before anyone else that _this _is the master he's slaved away for for so long._

_The ex-Enforcer presses a hand to his mouth to stop the bile from rising, and he turns away before anyone can stop him and begins a mad sprint up the staircase. No one makes anything of it; they're either engrossed by the grotesque sight in front of them or otherwise beginning to start forward to smash and destroy the brains and their glass cases; their screams are beginning to rend the air and Ginoza is faintly aware of a voice coming from the Dominator, which he tosses away like a hot iron-_

-and he wakes up, as he's done for months past, panting and sweating and hating that recurring nightmare that continues to plague him night after night. There's a clanging of metal- one of the overseers must've heard him sit up in the uncomfortable metal bunks, and he's banging his nightstick against the steel legs of the bunk Ginoza's in.

"Unit I-13, go back to sleep or I'll help you with that."

Ginoza acquiesces, lying down on his side and turning away from the aisle to face the wall. The overseer stares at him for a while longer before stomping away, apparently satisfied. The ex-Enforcer waits until the man is gone before releasing a long, shuddering sigh, one that makes his chest quiver with pain and grief.

_First dad. Then Kou. And now, Akane. How much more do I have to lose?_ he wonders, his fists clenching the pitiful cotton bedsheets in a futile attempt to stem the pain building in his chest.

He had thought hard physical work and daily fatigue would wear away the memories of that day. He'd thought the ice mines would be a place where he could rest, where the cold would freeze his burning emotions bit by bit until he couldn't feel them any longer.

He was wrong, though, as he always is, and the brown-eyed man presses his eyelids together to stop the hot tears from trickling down the side of his face, as he's done every night since- _and probably always will. _

* * *

I deviated slightly from the Psycho-Pass canon for this, which states that the Sibyl System controls all of Japan. For the purposes of this melded universe, there is only one city (unnamed to hold to canon) that is under the influence of the Sibyl System. However, the events of Psycho-Pass Season 1 still hold true to this universe.


End file.
